Friday, December 26, 2014

Given my long absence, today will be a bit of a photo dump. I noticed that my stats actually went up in the last week, so I'm assuming people were checking in on me, and that a failure to post would result in a search party appearing on my doorstep.

The reason for my disappearance (other than a very needy puppy); the tedium of painting our plaster moldings in the current entry room (future library). Given that our moldings are quite simple, I was shocked at how impossibly long they took to paint. The cove seems to have been gilded and wallpapered in its past lives, and currently sports a thick uneven coat of joint compound and white paint. While I know it should have been fully scraped, I just didn't have it in me, especially given that there is a layer of drywall over the original plaster ceiling. The drywall was extremely well done, and we'll most likely leave it alone until we're ready to do the final restoration of the room - rebuilding the lost built-ins and wallpapering. I'm hopeful that the drywall is hiding original wallpaper or stenciling, and as long as I believe that, the drywall doesn't stand a chance of surviving us finishing this space. For now, several coats of gold paint are in the cove, with a brick red picking out some of the bullnosed sections, and the ceiling has been painted a pale gloss gold.

The scaffolding remained a feature of the room longer than I care to admit as I figured out one unassailable truth - decorating a 10 1/2 foot Christmas tree becomes infinitely easier when one has jolly yellow scaffolding to do it from.

In other news, this is the most perfect tree that has ever been grown, and I don't know that we'll ever find it's equal... Also, in just a couple of weeks our dear little Maugrim has doubled in size (now 30 pounds, and taller than I'd care to admit). At this rate of exponential growth I fear for the future of the planet, as such growth must be some sort of Grey Goo scenario.

PRESENTS!!!!!!

And for the rest, let me present: Christmas decorations, part of a huge parlor set we recently obtained, the enormous framed antique photo of our house that we've been waiting to hang for almost 3 years, and the finished painted crown (and partially finished woodwork).

And while I had fully intended to take photos of our Hanukkah party (actually HAMukkah, because we just can't find it in ourselves to ever be normal), we had too much fun to bother with pictures. Our lonely menorah is all that remains...

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Meet Maugrim (named after the wolf in Narnia, which I think makes me the White Witch around here). He's a giant woolly malamute, and should serve not only to alleviate my desire for a pony, but should also generate enough warmth that we can turn the thermostat down a few degrees.

We had looked into breed rescues, but no one would consider a household with cats and a smaller dog given mal's high prey drives and size. The breeder we bought him from coordinates rehoming malamutes, and we had originally fallen in love with one of those dogs - but his owners then decided to keep him. That left us pretty broken up, and when I saw the breeder had a litter, well, getting a puppy became inevitable.

Maybe obtaining a puppy from such a locale was a poor decision.

Once I catch up on sleep I promise I'll update you all on house stuff, maybe I'll even throw in something festive for good measure.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

I'm neck deep in stripping woodwork, and since I have nothing revolutionary to add as far as the process goes, I haven't felt much like blogging. Luckily, as much as I feel like I've dropped the ball productivity wise, our carpenter had a few days to help us out. On the agenda was installing the water table on the schoolhouse, slating the belltower, and modifying the sills and jambs on the schoolhouse windows.

The water table was made out of 10 x 1 1/2 Azek trim. We chose the Azek since it will be resting on the concrete piers, pressed up against the 3x14 antique warehouse beams we used as our sill. This way the sill won't be absorbing any water that could compromise the building. To build the water table we cut three inches off at 10 degrees, then ran the other edge of the three inch piece through again at 10 degrees (then glued them up together). We went a few steps further, treating the sills and studs with tim-bor, a borate preservative that will protect against rot, carpenter ants and termites, and flashing both the top and bottom of the Azek. The flashing was a bit of a wasted effort however, since it was only after the fact that I learned you can't use aluminum against concrete (or treated lumber), as it will corrode. This is where it pays to do your research, as even our carpenter was unaware...

I can forgive the flashing snafu when this was all that was left of the Azek
Only available in very expensive 20 foot lengths, I didn't want to buy a fifth board

On a happier note, the slates on the cupola were almost entirely ones that had been culled from rebuilding our roof. They had various issues including the beginnings of rot, chips and cracks - but the area is small and steep enough that the rotted slates should still have decades of life, and the chipped sections could be cut off. This way I don't feel any guilt about using our good slates that we're saving for the front of the kitchen roof. It looks great, although I can't tell you why I didn't take a picture of the finished roof.

Monday, November 10, 2014

No posts last week, I know. But I was too busy finishing up what I needed to for our radiators to go back in. Then, I sort of got sucked into just lounging about in the warmth. Having heat is just so very decadent....

In our defense, it had gotten pretty damn chilly around here...

We pulled these two radiators about a month ago under the pretense of accessing the floors and trim. Having them out of the way also meant that we could reinforce the floors underneath them and caulk all the gaps, as they had begun to weaken and deteriorate with the water moving through the walls before we bought the house. Thankfully, the wood, though black from the water, didn't need replacement. Even though it doesn't look the greatest, it'll never be seen again now that the rads are back.

terrible before pic, but you get the idea
that's brick on the right where the plaster had failed

Since our plumbing company (Chuba for the locals) had given us a quote we couldn't refuse, we let them do the heavy lifting (the radiators are 4 feet long and 2 1/2 feet tall). Price-wise, removing and re-installing two radiators as well as installing a new pressure relief valve on the boiler ran us two hundred dollars. Although we could have done it ourselves, for that price I was happy to hand over the money. We put some plywood down to reinforce our rotten porch so the radiators didn't fall though, and decided to paint them while we were at it (they looked terrible, peeling silver on one side and substantial surface rust on the other (sooo much water in this house!)).... They got pressure washed, the worst spots wire brushed, and painted with many, many coats of Rustoleum's antique brass spray paint. I even remembered to tape off the threading and bleeders.

And now they're in, the boiler's working, and I can worry about finishing up the woodwork.

I'd like to pretend I don't have any more deadlines, but there's only one reason Luke would be this cute...

I think he may have overheard that we're getting a puppy come Thanksgiving....

Friday, October 31, 2014

With the entry torn apart, and monster radiators occupying the front porch, the Halloween spirit never kicked in this year. Which is sad, because Halloween? Our favorite holiday... Instead, I'll wish you guys a happy Halloween and fill up the rest of the post with images of Halloweens past...

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

We had an unexpected windfall the other day. A local house historian has a facebook page which I follow for the local history. She often mentions architect names, which gives me leads to research. As I've mentioned before, 1886 is quite early for a shingle Queen Anne of this type, and it would have been quite cutting edge at the time. This, and the fact that it was built for a prominent banker almost guaranteed that it was architect designed, but there was nothing indicating who that architect might be, and all our research had turned up nothing. A few days ago she posted a house built in New York by the Pittsburgh firm Charles Bartberger and E.G.W. Dietrich that was similar enough in style (and early enough) to make me do some research into the firm. Included in that post was a lead for another house of theirs nearby...

This house near us in Shadyside ended up being key...

MacBeth house by E.G.W. Dietrich on Amberson in Shadyside

This house is the MacBeth House at 715 Amberson Ave, built in 1884 by E.G.W. Dietrich. Although it doesn't look strikingly similar now, check out the original drawing...

MacBeth house by E.G.W. Dietrich on Amberson in Shadyside

The devil's in the details in this case. While the house itself doesn't resemble ours other than in type, there are too many striking similarities...

Alternating applied bullseyes on the trim...

Half-timbering/stickwork details in the gables....

Huge sunburst corbels...

Third floor Queen Anne windows...

Simple curved corbels on the porch with turned vase shaped columns on the first floor...

Cantilevered stair supported by corbels....

Fretwork on the Juliet balcony, and incised Eastlake square columns on the upper balcony (contrasting with those on the first floor), and similar decorative shingle work with the kicked out skirt on the second floor...

The kicker is that early this spring I went to an estate sale behind this house, and was irrationally compelled to take pictures of it's backside (although it was too cold to walk around the block to see the front of the house). Because of that ridiculous compulsion I can add detailed asymmetrical chimney to the list of similarities...

Everything seems to support Dietrich being the architect, and now that we have a name to research perhaps we'll find something more definitive. But for now, I'm satisfied... And even, dare I say, joyous....